One of the central tasks of the moral philosopher is to articulate the convictions of the society in which he or she lives so that these convictions may become available for rational scrutiny. This task is all the more urgent when a variety of conflicting and incompatible beliefs are held within one and the same community, either by rival groups who differ on key moral questions or by one and the same set of individuals who find within themselves competing moral allegiances. In either of these types of case the first task of the moral philosopher is to render explicit what is at issue in the various disagreements and it is a task of this kind that I have set myself in this lecture.

For it is quite clear that there are large disagreements about patriotism in our society. And although it would be a mistake to suppose that there are only two clear, simple

From the top of the towers,
you could see past the narrows,
past our lady of the harbor,
to the broad, open sea.
See the curve of the earth
on the vast, blue horizon
from the world’s greatest city,
in the land of the free.
All the brave men and women
that you never would notice,
from the precincts and fire halls---
the first on the scene.
Storming into the buildings
on the side of the angels,
they were gone in an instant,
in the belly of the beast.
We are children of slavery,
children of immigrants,
remnants of tribes and their tired refugees.
As they tumbled down,
we were stronger together—
stronger than we ever knew we could be—
as strong as that statue that stands for the promise
of liberty here in this city of dreams.
All the flags on front porches
and banners of unity
spanning the bridges
from the top of the fence—
as we

These kids have learned some history
and they know what warfare used to be:
tanks and guns and soldiers
that moved across the land—
with strategies and battlelines
converging at a place in time;
and lives were lost for reasons
that the world could understand
On the History Channel, war
can look exactly like before,
when you were certain it was over
by the ticker tape parade.
They could come back home to safety;
they could celebrate the victory;
and the landmines were all buried
’cross the ocean far away.
But a different kind of war
has reached our shore,
and you never see it coming anymore.

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep (where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes), what is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep -- as it fitfully blows -- half conceals, half discloses?

Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam; in full glory reflected now shines in the stream: ’tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.